ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the educational development, widely believed by national leaders and the international community alike to be a crucial need if Bangladesh is to develop both economically and socially. It examines the national and international factors affecting the course of Bangladeshi development. It is the influence of the international community which has been most important in shaping the goals of educational policy-making in Bangladesh. The political process in Bangladesh is basically about competition for scarce jobs and wealth, and for status and prestige within the small political class. This class comprises an interlocking network of interests and values. The political class comprises professional politicians, bureaucrats and other government employees at all levels, university teachers and students, professionals, big businessmen, landowners and the small but highly articulate industrial working class. Policy-makers and educationalists recognise that the huge public subsidies to higher education are unjustified on economic grounds and in terms of social justice.
